We’d be remiss if we left The Encyclopedia of Union College without sharing this delightful entry:
Canes. Although little is known of the protocol of cane-carrying at any period, it was long fashionable for able-bodied college students to own these appendages; at Union, canes remained in vogue until at least 1924.
Jonathan Pearson (who had a cane in 1829, before coming to Union) records in his diary instances of students striking each other with canes in 1834 and in 1859, which suggests that they were carried on other than strictly formal occasions. By at least 1863, and probably much earlier, it was customary for classes to order identical canes. Seniors owned canes of malacca, an Asian palm, in the 1860s, and in 1897 the freshmen bought congo wood canes with their class year in silver on the handle.
From at least 1868, freshmen were forbidden to wear top hats and carry canes before their third term. From 1878 until 1933 (see Hazing and Class Fights), the outcome of the cane rush was supposed to determine when freshmen would be allowed to start carrying canes, though this had become purely a symbolic issue long before the fights were given up.
A junior class order for canes in 1924 is the last report of this custom . . . a more practical substitute, class blazers, is mentioned for the first time in 1931.
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention that at least one college has revived the tradition of canes, though they have the good sense to not give them out until graduation.
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